Exactly, dig dig dig deeper, a lot of untapped stuff, but see, that's not "plot", that's character, and all too often the soaps haven't been interested in that.

Those clips are great. I loved how the show looked then, Linden (with Jeremy's portrait of Erica still hanging above the stairs), Erica's (and even Opal's) clothes...

My main objection to SMG's Kendall is that the writers couldn't decide how old she was supposed to be. In that clip, she and Erica are interacting as if Kendall is about 16-18, yet by the wedding to Dimitri, Kendall is over 21 and drinking with Charlie and Haley at the rehearsal dinner. Based on when she was supposedly born, Kendall should be several years OLDER than Charlie but there's no way in hell anyone would think SMG looked older than Christopher Lawford. I also don't necessarily buy that Kendall was in her 20s and was a virgin when she slept with Anton and was so sexually naive that she freaked her [!@#$%^&*] out over that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7mqN4kWtQ4&feature=related

This is sad, painful, and uncomfortable to watch. I miss when these shows made me *feel*.

Meanwhile, notice SL pre- and post-nose management in the '93 and '94 clips.

My main objection to SMG's Kendall is that the writers couldn't decide how old she was supposed to be. In that clip, she and Erica are interacting as if Kendall is about 16-18, yet by the wedding to Dimitri, Kendall is over 21 and drinking with Charlie and Haley at the rehearsal dinner. Based on when she was supposedly born, Kendall should be several years OLDER than Charlie but there's no way in hell anyone would think SMG looked older than Christopher Lawford. I also don't necessarily buy that Kendall was in her 20s and was a virgin when she slept with Anton and was so sexually naive that she freaked her [!@#$%^&*] out over that.

LOL, it took me a second to decipher which word you used to get the: [!@#$%^&*]

Yeah, Christopher Lawford imo looked a good ten years older than the previous Charlie who dated Erica. Do you think they should have just fudged with "real time" and let Kendall remain a teen? I mean, with SORASing, I feel like they made too big of a deal out of it trying to convince us she was 23 or whatever.

LOL, it took me a second to decipher which word you used to get the: [!@#$%^&*]

Yeah, Christopher Lawford imo looked a good ten years older than the previous Charlie who dated Erica. Do you think they should have just fudged with "real time" and let Kendall remain a teen? I mean, with SORASing, I feel like they made too big of a deal out of it trying to convince us she was 23 or whatever.

IIRC, the writers wanted Kendall to be about 16, but fans were protesting, since Erica had been on the show for 23 years by that point, and no matter how good Susan Lucci looked, she wasn't really passable as being in her early 30s - she was 47 at the time! So yeah, I think they then tried to pretend she was really a lot older, but I guess just massively immature or something? Either way, it didn't work very well. IMHO, they should have planned for her to be in her early 20s from the very beginning and cast an older actress. Going with an older actress would have made more sense than retroactively changing Erica's age and saying 'Oh, well, Erica was really born in 1962.' Um... yeah...

I also thought Christopher Lawford was bad casting for Charlie. Charlie should have been in his early 20s, and CL looked like he was at least 40.

Yeah, like when Kendall smoked for example, I wasn't sure if they were going for "teen bad girl" or "older than you think young woman". Plus, there must be rules about a 16 year-old just taking a room in a boarding house, I don't recall how (if?) that was handled. She could have been an un-emancipated runaway minor for all Myrt knew.

What the hell...

LOL! First SuLu commercial had her saying, "11 years..."; then, right after the latest loss, "12 years...".

Edited December 9, 201113 yr by Pine Charles

That is hilarious! What a great clip, the good ol' days. That AMC package was wonderful, so many senior faces showcased. Was that Ceara Erica backhanded? I think so. The hair kinda looks like Donna but I know Erica never got into it with her.

Based on when she was supposedly born, Kendall should be several years OLDER than Charlie but there's no way in hell anyone would think SMG looked older than Christopher Lawford.

Exactly. It was bad enough that Kendall existed. Her age, and the inaccuracy of it, just made things even worse.

Do you think they should have just fudged with "real time" and let Kendall remain a teen?

They should have cast an age-appropriate actress for Kendall, SL's ego be damned, and brought on SMG instead as Ray Gardner's illegitimate daughter, conceived during a conjugal visit with her mother while Ray was incarcerated. I could have accepted her much better as a rebellious teen whom Joe, Ruth and Tad took under their wing after her abusive mother, upset that SMG's character would accuse her latest boyfriend of trying to rape her, had thrown her out of the house.

Edited December 9, 201113 yr by Khan

Well, there's an idea.

I've said this a million times, but I used to refer to SMG's Sydney as "the Erica of this show" when she was on Swans Crossing so I always appreciated the casting connection.

What bothers you so much about the rape Khan? Gosh, that sounds like an awful question, but you know what I mean...

^ I used to watch Swan's Crossing. I think SMG and I are about the same age. I do appreciate that connection, and yes, SMG does resemble SL a little bit, but I still think she was too young. I wonder what SL thought about them bringing on a daughter for Erica who was old enough to make her a grandmother?

I think the age thing may be why I really liked Alicia Minshew as Kendall - her Kendall to me looked and acted more like an adult when she first came back.

What the hell...

LOL! First SuLu commercial had her saying, "11 years..."; then, right after the latest loss, "12 years...".

SuLu always excelled at comedy, and this clip proved it. Remember watching this and loving it. My favorite is the way she tilts her head and says, "Except that Emmy."

I've said this a million times, but I used to refer to SMG's Sydney as "the Erica of this show" when she was on Swans Crossing so I always appreciated the casting connection.

When SMG first showed up on AMC, the first thought running through my mind was, "Isn't that what's-her-name from Swan's Crossing? Perfect!"

That is hilarious! What a great clip, the good ol' days. That AMC package was wonderful, so many senior faces showcased. Was that Ceara Erica backhanded? I think so. The hair kinda looks like Donna but I know Erica never got into it with her.

That was Ceara. I remember this catfight. IIRC Erica rips Ceara's sleeve. Ceara gives her a you-bitch look and says, "You just ripped my Donna Karan." Erica replies with something about it not being a "real Donna Karan."

This is sad, painful, and uncomfortable to watch. I miss when these shows made me *feel*.

+1...been noting how much I can even "feel" now knowing what happens about these storylines that have been posted. This is when I was so intrigued with what was going on, I actually would WATCH the soap, rather than do something else during...of course now it's an ADD world...

Things I noted watching this:

Hated this Taylor

Never understood why they brought back Nevin for Cecily for a hot minute. I liked her and all, but...

Back when the soaps had so much money, they could have Alanis Morissette (who was blowing up at precisely this time) as mere background music

Even before I was wiser about behind-the-scenes, remembering thinking AMC was trying to be hip and trendy by bringing in the coffee house set. Remember being annoyed that the coffee house set replaced BJ's for a few years until Mateo and Hayley opened their place(s), but then BJ's reappeared and became Krystal's

Absolutely loving the gay storyline. Growing up in small town Midwest, not knowing much about homosexuality, it may have even educated me a bit about all of the feelings surrounding it. AMC was very brave for taking this on, and I remember thinking that even then. Ellen was still a few years away from coming out at this point

Realizing that Noah/Julia in hindsight have a very familiar dynamic. It's almost latter-day Jessie, if Jessie had become romantically involved with Jenny after the summer of NYC

Money for numerous extras at coffeehouse and school and some deeper cavernous sets

Myrtle when she was actually able to move around (although she always maintained that feistiness)

Gloria! (I always liked her Little Girl Lost vibe)

Realizing what a particularly great match-up Kiberd's Trevor and Ripa's Hayley were. Even though Hayley was mellowed a bit before she departed, if you watch their portrayals, you can see how believable they were as relatives. Heck, the rhythm of some of their dialogue was the same. I wonder if that developed from the two of them sharing so many scenes when Hayley first came on.

Confirming what I had been thinking these past few years, in that Jamie Luner's Liza wasn't really THAT far off from Walker's portrayal, it was just the shitty writing Luner had to work with and the way she was brought in (straight flush anyone?). Some of Luner's smirks and grins were practically mirror images of Walker in this epi....(now I'm bracing for stones)

The dialogue, the dialogue, the dialogue. I always thought AMC was so intelligently written in the nineties.

Trevor--Bingo! (then) Bing, bing!

Trevor--Even though you two are tit for tat on the Richter scale, Julia here may not be such a liability in this particular earthquake.

I used to love the way they spun cliches (later clip in this thread, Kendall says Erica's an insult to motherhood. Erica responds by saying, "Why don't you tell me I've ruined baseball and apple pie as well?")

David Canary's Master Class. I know he retired, but Canary always could keep me riveted by both characters (even thinking in my first few months of watching it was two different actors. Well!? They showed two different pictures in the opening for him in 1990), and he was sorely missed by me that last year or so. In all its history, I'm not sure there was ever a greater mix of a fascinating layered portrayal and script in AMC. Even when the scripts faltered, he delivered.

Enchantment! I still never understood how Enchantment was phased out...something about Cambias assuming control and then it faded away...

Hating this version of Dixie's hair most of all, Scarecrow.

Edited December 11, 201113 yr by cct